I just found this letter to and response from Bruce Lee – whose 72nd birthday would’ve been today – via the always fantastic LettersofNote. I put Bruce Lee in the headline because he’s got the name recognition, but the real star of this exchange is Roland Lee. The turn of phrase “Furthermore, he picked up a hammer and hit himself all over” is brilliant, and I could read it ten times over and still laugh every time. I want that worked into my epitaph somehow. “He had four loving children, having retired after working for the Illinois Railroad Company for 42 years. Furthermore, he picked up a hammer and hit himself all over.”

As to the what/where of the letter, Shaun from LettersofNote says: “In the 1960s Bruce Lee answered a bunch of fans’ letters via Black Belt magazine. Many are reprinted in this book (‘Dear Bruce Lee’).”

Anyway, great letter, and happy birthday, Bruce. We’d trade that crusty old sack of farts Chuck Norris for you in a heartbeat.

He was awesome. There’s a real letter at the Warner Brother museum in Burbank addressed from Bruce to Ted Ashley, chairman of production and it has one of the best lines I’ve read in my entire life: “You see, Ted, my expression is to make pardon the expression, the fuckingest action film that has ever been made.” So great.

I don’t talk about my religious beliefs very often, my ideas are sort of a mashup of Eastern philosophy, Buddhism, with a little twist of my strong family background in Catholocism (I know, right?).

With that being said, it is my personal held belief that Bruce Lee was a special kind of achievement in mankind. Not necessarily singular, but the most well known example to point to. If nothing else, he has been an instrumental guide to me to act with grace and dignity in my day to day life and my dealings with people that I meet.

I don’t worship Bruce Lee, or anything like that. I don’t have a shrine or methodically watch his movies. All I do is let people like him inspire me in my heart.